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Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify the elements of which the phenomenon as
manifested among police officers consists, and to compare these with the
elements as already documented in literature; to determine the intensity of the
experience of psychological burnout among South African police officers and to
investigate the relationship between situational trigger mechanisms and the
experience of burnout
In the literature study there was a focus on the identification of situational trigger
mechanisms. For the purposes of the study use was made of a dual division of
trigger mechanisms, viz. intrinsic trigger mechanisms related to work content,
and extrinsic trigger mechanisms related to other forces. Although intrapsychical
forces are acknowledged as trigger mechanisms they have been excluded for
purposes of this study.
For the empirical study an availability sample of 526 police officers was obtained.
Only 386 police officers completed the questionnaires. Following a check for
correctness, a total of 356 questionnaires could be used. The sample was drawn
from four main sections of the Police, viz. Visible Policing, Crime Combating and
Investigation, Unit for Internal Stability and Support Services.
The following questionnaires were taken down: a biographical questionnaire, The
Pines Burnout Inventory, Van Graan Psychological Burnout Scale and a Trigger
Mechanism Questionnaire compiled by this researcher on the basis of the literature
survey. Percentages, means and standard deviations were calculated for the Pines
Burnout Inventory, the Van Graan Burnout Scale and the Trigger Mechanism
Questionnaire. The Pearson product moment correlation was used to determine
the relationship between burnout and the trigger mechanisms for burnout,
frequency and intensity of the Van Graan Burnout Scale. A factor analysis was
done on the Van Graan Burnout Scale and the Trigger Mechanism Questionnaire.
From the results it emerged that a significant, low level of burnout occurs in the
study group as measured by the Pines Burnout Inventory. It also emerged that the
components of which the burnout in this study group consisted appeared to be
unique to this group, and differed significantly from the componential constitution
of the other study groups.
No relationship could be found between the experience of burnout as measured by
the Pines Burnout Inventory and situational trigger mechanisms. On the other
hand, however, a clear componential constitution of situational trigger
mechanisms could be found, and on the basis of the incidence of specific trigger
mechanisms a distinction could be made between more and less important trigger
mechanisms.
The most important contribution of this study is to be found in the confirmation
that psychological burnout is an individualized phenomenon. One has to guard
against the trend to conceptualize the phenomenon in general terms or to define
it in such a way. It also emerged that the moderator variables, such as a specific
organizational structure, but then especially also intrapsychical forces, together
with specific trigger mechanisms, should be used to conceptualize a prediction
model for the phenomenon.